Pride and Honor REVISED
by Stizzo
Summary: The girls of the Hinata House are about to learn a great deal about thier resident manager when a boy claiming to be his son arrives one night...


A/N: I know, I know "OMG why are you wasting your time re-writing a fic people already liked?" Well, I went to get working on an update and re-read the entire fic, which is when I realized 2 things: I didn't really see where I planned on taking the story, and that I hated the fic so bad that I wanted to leave _myself _a flame. It was corny, jagged, confusing, and had characters that didn't act the way they were supposed to. It wasn't bad for a first attempt, I guess, but I can't muster up the will power to finish it now. So I'm making a new version that will hopefully be better.

Anyway, same rules apply as before. I know that the story isn't following the original series' timeline too closely so don't tell me about that. Anything other than that is fair game-so nit-pick, even if it seems like a small gripe. Also, feel free to bother me if I'm taking a long time with updates. I know it has to be annoying, but sometimes I get busy and literally forget all about my fanfics.

So yeah, I don't own Love Hina. I'll be better than Akumatsu-sama anyway, and someday people will be writing fanfics about _my _comics.

**-**

**Pride and Honor**: Chapter 01 - Oops… I Was Meaning to Tell You….

-

Keitaro Urashima sighed heavily, tearing his eyes away from his practice book for a moment. Rubbing his eyes vigorously, he concluded that he wouldn't be able to answer another question no matter how long he stared at the book. A quick glance at his clock revealed that it was around 5:30 am-about the time of day a person should be waking up, not studying.

As he leaned back, he could feel a dull headache forming, and his stomach bubbled ominously. _Oh crap. I knew that taco was a bad idea…_he thought as he reached for the stomach medicine he had taken to placing on his desk. As an after-thought, he took a pain-killer as well. Leaning back again with a slow caution, he groaned loudly.

While this would seem to be a rather curious scene for most people, Keitaro had known nothing else for the last 4 years of his life. Ever since he was little he has been studying to make it in to Tokyo University, probably the hardest school to get into in Japan (or perhaps the world). While other people could manage to pull this off and get a good night's sleep on occasion, Keitaro didn't quite have the book smarts your average Tokyo U hopeful had, and he would bet a million yen that none of them had to manage an all-girls dormitory-not a good choice of work for a young man that happened to value his health, if his past experiences were any indication-and _also_ had a part time job working for an archeologist. That was pure, Urashima Keitaro brand luck there.

When this is all put into perspective, it's quite easy to see why he would be studying during hours that don't even exist to most other people, running on pure caffeine and determination.

Keitaro stood up and stretched. He would have to get ready to do the work that actually got him food and shelter, and the residents wouldn't be too sympathetic if he told them that he hasn't slept well for nearly a month now and that even his eyes shake with the amount of caffeine in his system. Well, they probably _would _let him off the hook for a little bit, but he didn't feel like complaining this morning.

Keitaro felt a bit odd this morning as he took his shower and got himself dressed. There was something nagging him in the back of his mind that might be important... He couldn't figure out what it was, though. He didn't think any practice tests were coming up (he could check with Naru again later), he had bought all of his textbooks, he did the groceries, and Shinobu did his laundry for him this week….

Keitaro sighed. Whatever it was, he could just figure it out later. Grabbing his mop, he went to go clean the hot spring as he did every morning. He had to get in early, since most of the residents liked to get a bath in whenever they got home from school or work. And, of course, timing his cleaning schedule poorly usually lead to injuries he didn't need this early in the day. Sliding the door open, he was greeted by the sight of all the Hinata tenants.

…_Or I could've forgotten that we had a party late last night, so everybody would have to take their baths early before leaving for the day… _Keitaro thought, with a resigned frown on his face. It really was too early for this. Maybe he could blame it all on the caffeine now?

-

Some guys got the cold shoulder when they made girls angry. Others found themselves sleeping on the couch for a few days, or maybe the girl gave him the sharp side of her tongue. Hell, maybe she sold some of his stuff on E-bay, or burned it if she was really crazy. These methods are rather brutal in their own ways, but Keitaro would rejoice if he received the coldest shoulder, the sharpest tongue, or had to spend an eternity sleeping on a couch. He would even put up with some of his personal possessions disappearing one day and finding a bon fire in the hot spring area, so long as the girls didn't elect to toss him in it.

Instead, Keitaro was hanging over a boiling cauldron of water, his face mere inches from the surface, praying that the rope they found was sturdy. The water bubbled, occasionally splashing him with a small amount of scalding, hot water. Keitaro tried to hold himself still, since he didn't quite trust the rope's ability to hold him up. While the girls joked that he was immortal, he didn't really want to test that theory out here, and either way it would hurt a lot if he fell face-first into this, with no way of getting out since his arms were tied. Normally he would be rather panicky, but at the moment, all he had energy to do was squirm a bit.

"Guys, do we have to do this every week? It sort of, you know, _hurts,_" Keitaro pleaded, trying hard to look one of his captors in the eye. He caught Naru's gaze for a minute, but she was well beyond reasoning with. The other's ranged from apologetic and helpless, to downright sinister. He certainly wasn't going to get any outside help on this one.

"You know, perhaps if you didn't do something stupid like this at least twice _daily_ then maybe we wouldn't have to tie you down like the animal you are!" Naru shouted, stepping closer. "Do you get off on this sort of thing? It would explain a whole hell of a lot, since you still haven't adopted safeguards such as _knocking_. Instead you stick your dumb, perverted nose through doors and windows so it can get broken."

If Keitaro had a pen, he would be copying this down furiously. As it stood, he was still hanging from a rope while boiling water _burned his face._ Maybe other people didn't happen to think his face was nice, but he liked it. Why couldn't these girls just be normal? He lucks out, gets a job as a live-in manager of a girls dorm, but the tenants seem more bent on killing him than anything else.

Keitaro saw Naru tapping her foot impatiently, and realized with a start that she had asked him a question. He thought hard, but couldn't remember her saying anything, so he just nodded. The motion alerted him to the fact that he had a bad headache and the room seemed to be rotating slowly. His vision began to fade and waves of dizziness made it impossible to comprehend what the girls were saying.

"I'm… uh… I … didn't…." Keitaro said, his breathing becoming heavier and more labored. Hanging upside down by a rope with all the blood rushing to his head, while over-heating wouldn't be healthy for anybody-much less for a person that is suffering from sleep depravation and a caffeine overdose simultaneously.

Naru's expression softened slightly. She squinted as she looked into Keitaro's eyes which didn't seem to be focusing. "Hey, are you all right?" Naru asked, concerned. This was a person she had seen thrown out of buildings, back into buildings, sent soaring through the sky, blown up, and a myriad of other things that most other people wouldn't be able to walk away from. Seeing him this out of it was just a bit strange.

Keitaro could see a flurry of movement before he passed out cold.

-

"He's exhausted both mentally and physically," Motoko announced coming out of Keitaro's room. The girls were all waiting impatiently to hear if the resident landlord would be okay like he always was. "Before I even put him to bed his fever broke and he was sleeping peacefully. There is no need to worry."

_Freak, _Motoko added mentally, dusting her hands off.

"So, sempai is all right?" Shinobu asked again, looking less pale than she did earlier.

"She just said he'll be okay, Shinobu. I don't see what all the ruckus is about anyway-he always gets back up," Naru said, walking towards her own room. She swallowed the sigh of relief she had almost let out a moment ago, and composed herself.

Stopping, she turned to address the other girls. "But make sure you let him rest. He probably hasn't been sleeping regularly, and there's no telling _what _might happen if he doesn't rest."

"Okies, Naru-yan! Not a sound from me! He'll have the best nap ever!" Su proclaimed loudly before bolting from the area. Naru sighed, shaking her head slightly. Su was the person she was worried about the most. Also she didn't like the clinking metal sounds she was already hearing from her room. Crap. She was going to have to hide her tools again.

Mitsune just shrugged. "You sure I shouldn't go on in and keep him warm? It couldn't hurt." Naru grabbed her by an ear while she was leaving, dragging the older woman off.

"We can't do anything for sempai now?" Shinobu asked Motoko again.

"We can let him sleep. It'll be a relief, believe me. Maybe we'll get some peace with him out for the day," Motoko said as she strode off.

Shinobu gave Keitaro's door one last look and then followed the other girls.

-

**A few hours later**

It was getting dark now and Naru was going to check on Keitaro for about the third time that day. She would admit that she was starting to worry just a bit. While a few hours wouldn't be anywhere near long enough to bring an alarm for most people, for Keitaro it was practically an eternity. Usually he'd be back up and ready to pound again in 30 minutes or less, but today they haven't heard a single noise from his room.

_We didn't really do anything too horrible to him today, did we? We just kinda smacked him through a wall, dragged him across the floor, and then hung him over a boiling cauldron…_

Naru frowned at the absurdity of her thought. She _really_ needed to get away from this boy for a little bit before her concept of normal went to hell. Maybe she could go visit her family after the entrance exams this year… or…

_Hey, who's that…? _Naru squinted. She could make out a slim boy with short black hair. He was wearing a mask over the bottom portion of his face, but he looked kind of familiar…

"Keitaro…?" Naru asked uncertainly. It was kind of hard to tell in the dark.

"Hey, so you're alive. That's cool-all my tutoring won't go to waste, then. You want something to eat?" Naru asked, approaching quickly. She was met with a flat look. "Hey, don't look at me like that! It's not my fault you passed out earlier. You have to be more careful." Still no answer. "Are you mad or something, now? Your sulking isn't going to make me apologize for something that isn't my fault." Now the look was more impatient than anything else.

Naru's eyebrow twitched ominously. _Why is Keitaro being such a jerk? He only has himself to blame anyway…_

"Talk, damn it!" Naru shouted, pulling back for one of her patented super-punches. The figure looked up suddenly, glaring fiercely at Naru. The look in his eyes made Naru freeze, and her arm fell limply to her side. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw

a vision of her neck being broken, then saw her heart being ripped out, she saw a knife being stabbed into her forehead, she saw, she saw….

Naru felt herself falling backwards, but was caught and let down to the ground softly as horrifying visions passed before her eyes. The hands left her, and she felt a rush of air as somebody rushed past.

"Naru? What happened? Naru!" She was being shaken, she supposed. How did the others know there was trouble? Did she scream? Oh wait-she was _still _screaming. Just hadn't noticed it until now. It almost made her want to laugh.

Motoko was scanning the hallway quickly. She had caught sight of a short black-boy, but he got away. Urashima, maybe? She hadn't really gotten a good look at him, but it looked about right.

"She seems like she's seen a ghost and keeps mumbling something about Keitaro. Other than that, she looks fine," Mitsune announced, standing up. Motoko walked over to Naru and passed her hand over her eyes. Naru didn't blink, nor did her eyes even follow Motoko's hand. "Maybe she hasn't been sleeping like the other ronin?"

_This is genjutsu… _Motoko thought as she stood back up.

"No, I saw something too," Motoko said, sheathing her sword. "It looked like Urashima, but I'm not sure. Go get the others, and move them somewhere safe. I'm going to check this out."

-

Keitaro was wandering the halls at a measured pace. He remembered what he had to tell everybody, but there was nobody in sight. Maybe the girls were hiding from him?

_-_

_Hm… Urashima isn't in his room…_ Motoko thought, shutting the door. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she needed to find Keitaro and restrain him until he was thinking straight again.

As if her thought had called him, Motoko sensed somebody behind her and to her right. Acting casually, Motoko slowed her pace down a bit and lowered her hand slowly to her sword. Then she spun rapidly, dashing towards her target with her sword raised. The boy seemingly disappeared from right in front of her, and Motoko felt a blow to her left side. Spinning, Motoko struck feeling her sword come into contact with skin. Her eyes widened as she saw blood in the air, and a body flying limply through the air, the head going in the other direction. Tough or not, nothing could survive _that_.

Then the figure disappeared in a puff of smoke, and in its place was a piece of the wooden railing.

_A substitute?_ Motoko thought.

That was certainly new. When did Keitaro pick up ninjutsu? It wasn't exactly something he could've learned from all of the books he was studying. And while the girls didn't know much about his days before he came to the Hinata House, this was definitely one of the things she should have noticed at some point.

There was no sign of Urashima anywhere, and wandering around alone might be dangerous. She was going to have to meet with the other girls to get some sort of a plan before doing anything else.

Just as Motoko left, a figure dropped down from the ceiling, noiselessly. A member of the God's Cry might make things… complicated… And his target seemed to be on the move now. Bad luck, that girl happened to come by right when he had to come out into the open to enter his target's room. Karma. He would find him soon enough and be done with this mission…

The boy darted off into the shadows.

"Eh? Sempai now employs the shinobi arts?" Shinobu asked, unbelieving. They had all retreated to the attic at Motoko's order, but most of the girls were still not quite certain what was going on at the moment.

Naru, who had just recovered her senses a little while ago, scoffed. "Motoko, do you have any clue how ridiculous you sound? Keitaro can't even play DDR without hurting himself. How do you expect us to believe he mastered ninjutsu?"

"I'm not joking. Urashima is clumsy-looking, sure, but I've had a sneaking suspicion about this since I met him. I think he has a natural ability for martial arts," Motoko explained, shrugging slightly. "Also, we don't really know too much about his past."

"That's true…" Mitsune said, rubbing her chin. "Been around him for a while now, but we don't even know where he went to high school."

Naru rubbed her temples, groaning. Suddenly her headache had come back to her. "Are you guys even listening to yourselves? That person we met in the hall was _nothing_ like Keitaro! Goofballs like him don't just turn into super assassins!"

"I think Naru-sempai is right… Sempai is too kind to ever attack us. Also it was rather dark and hard to see… by what you guys told me, anyway," Shinobu put in.

"Either way, we have to find him. If there's an intruder on the loose, than Urashima will be an easy target, since he's already weakened." Motoko said, standing up. "I'll lead the way out."

Everyone started down the ladder, while Motoko kept a watchful eye over the hallway.

-

Keitaro scratched his head looking around the hallway. The building was abandoned, it seemed. _Were _the girls avoiding him? He couldn't find any real reason for them to leave without telling him, unless maybe they were planning something nasty.

Keitaro sighed. He was just being paranoid now-the girls would beat him up from time to time, but they wouldn't go to all this trouble just to hurt him. Well, maybe he could just…

"I've found you," a voice behind him said. It was definitely not one of the girls either.

Keitaro spun, shocked. That sounded like… "…Bandit….?"

-

Naru sighed, walking backwards at the tail end of the line. To say she felt a little ridiculous patrolling her own home like she was in a marine fire team would have been an understatement to say the least. If it was up to her, they would've just holed up in the attic…

Naru sighed again. Keitaro was out here somewhere with some maniac on the loose though. Unless maybe _he _was the maniac they were looking for…

_No, _Naru thought vehemently. That person she encountered earlier definitely wasn't him.

"Is our rear-guard paying attention, or is she just mumbling to herself?" Motoko asked nonchalantly from the front of the line.

Naru snapped a fake salute. "The second one, ma'am!"

Motoko growled and was about to say something else when Mitsune cut her off. "Hey look over there!" She hissed.

The girls followed her finger down the hall where two people were facing off.

"It's sempai! But who is with him?" Shinobu asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"Who cares?" Motoko said, pulling out her sword, "I'm going to make him pay for coming here!"

"Woo! Time to battle!" Su cried gleefully, pulling out 2 impossibly large guns.

Naru just shook her head. Sure, they never had to worry about thieves or perverts here, but was it worth the property damage?

Taking a second look at the shadowy figure, he was about a head shorter than Keitaro, and his hair seemed a bit wilder. Also his eyes lacked the warmth their manager's eyes had. He gave a look at Keitaro, and then looked at the two girls advancing with weapons raised.

Suddenly he reached to a shuriken holster tied to his left leg, and in a blink, pair of shuriken was whistling through the air. They bent around Motoko and converged in one Su, raking across both of her guns. With a start, she flung them to the ground where they promptly burst into flame. The boy then drew the sword poking over his left shoulder, barely getting it up in time to block Motoko's furious attack. They locked for a second, but the smaller boy began to buckle slightly under the pressure the larger Motoko was applying with her blade.

Giving an extra burst, Motoko pushed the boy backwards. He stumbled for a step, and leapt away impossibly fast to avoid Motoko's follow-up attack. With his balance restored, the boy effortlessly dodged a few more attacks before pressing the attack again. Motoko parried the blow and dealt a savage kick to his middle. The boy took the blow and rolled away a bit, ending up in an alert kneeling stance. Motoko was breathing heavily, while the boy slightly favored his middle. Other than that he looked fine.

_I believe I have seen this style before, or at least a variation of it…_ Motoko thought to her self, already regaining her wind.

The boy jumped backwards, creating plenty of space between himself and Motoko. He stood there for a bit before rushing at her with his sword trailing behind him. Motoko brought her sword up, trying to follow her opponent with her eyes. The boy skipped off the wall, and flipped so his feet were touching the ceiling. Clearing the rest of the distance like this, he then launched himself from the area directly above Motoko's head. She managed to get her sword up, but was forced to a knee by the force of the blow. The boy hit the floor rolling, ending up in a kneeling stance directly behind Motoko. He bashed the back of her arm at the elbow with the hilt of his sword, making her drop the sword with numb fingers.

Motoko tried to recover, but found a kunai blade held to her throat.

"Truce! _Truce! _Violence _bad, _Bandit!" Keitaro ran by, flailing his arm wildly. The boy looked up for a moment, before relenting and putting his weapons away. Keitaro thought he saw a bit of disappointment in his features.

"Motoko!" Su cried out, running towards her friend.

By this time, the other girls were approaching rapidly. Well, except for Naru who wasn't quite eager to meet up with the young ninja again. _Well, he seems calm now. I wonder how Keitaro managed that?_

"Who the hell is this?" Motoko asked, standing up.

"Hey, you're late. What gives?" Keitaro asked.

"I was not. You were unconscious," the boy replied.

"Who the hell is this?" Motoko asked again.

"Oops, my bad. I got a little "tied up" this morning," Keitaro replied, scratching the back of his head. "You seem to have gotten here okay, though."

"_Who the fuck is this, Urashima?_" Motoko shouted, her patience gone. She started to reach for her sword, but her right arm was still paralyzed. She began to reach for it with her left hand, but the ninja stepped on her fingers. Motoko looked up to the boy, and then turned back to Keitaro who was trying his best to placate the boy.

"Bandit, she's not an enemy. She's just looking out for her friends. Let her _go…_" Keitaro soothed. The boy looked back and shrugged slightly, taking his weight off Motoko. He bowed respectfully to her as if apologizing (though Keitaro couldn't help but think it was mocking) before doing the same to the others.

"You plan on introducing us sometime this year, Keitaro?" Naru tapped her foot ominously, her patience also waning. "Have you been keeping a ninja tucked in your closet or something?"

"Well, about that… I was going to tell you sooner, but I just got so busy with studying," Keitaro said, sweating now.

"What? How long have you known he was coming?" Mitsune asked, her brow wrinkling in thought.

Keitaro laughed nervously as the girls closed in on him. "….Well… about two months…"

"WHAT?"

"Look," Motoko broke in, "I asked you a _serious question _about the identity of this child! Who is he and why is he _here?_"

"Um…"

"My _name _is Urashima Sora. I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to me as 'child'," the ninja boy said, clearing his throat softly. "I was told to report to father for my final phase of training."

The girls seemed to mull over this for a second, nodding to themselves before realization sunk in. _He said "father"!_

"What the hell….?" Naru finally drawled out.

Keitaro wished he was still out cold.

-

A/N: It's done. Give me one week, and then harass me all you want if I don't have the next chapter done.


End file.
